Method and system for scheduling and initiating a telephone conference call or other event

ABSTRACT

A system for scheduling and initiating a telephone conference including an application server including: an interface and a parser operably coupled to the interface to extract information from received information. The system may further include a communication server that includes an event database operable to generate an event ID responsive to the received event information and store an event record, and a contact database comprising a plurality of contact records that determines if the plurality of contact records comprises either of the event host or the event participant. The system further includes a telephone interface operable to establish a conference call responsive to the event date and the event time and call each of the event host and the event participant.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/563,665 titled Method andSystem for Scheduling and Initiating a Telephone Conference Call orOther Event filed on Sep. 27, 2017, the entire content(s) of whichis/are incorporated herein by reference

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to systems and methods for scheduling andinitiating a conference call.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Conference calls are an essential tool in telephonic communication toenable multiple participants to simultaneously converse withoutrequiring cumbersome manual connection by a telephone user or operator.Traditionally, conference call participants have placed an outbound callto a telephone number associated with a conference call system, and insome instances enter a passcode or conference number to route to or beadmitted to a particular conference call. However, it is a frequentoccurrence for one or more intended participants for a conference callto not remember, miss a notification on their computer or smart device,or otherwise be tardy to enter a conference call, or miss the conferencecall entirely. This results in the other conference call participantseither spending time waiting for the tardy call participant to join,performing an incomplete call without the benefit of the missing callparticipant, or rescheduling the conference call entirely, each outcomehaving significant attending cost in terms of lost productivity.Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a system operable tomitigate tardiness or absence for conference calls.

This background information is provided to reveal information believedby the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention.No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that anyof the preceding information constitutes prior art against the presentinvention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

With the above in mind, embodiments of the present invention are relatedto a system for scheduling and initiating a telephone conferencecomprising an application server comprising an interface operable toreceive information related to a telephone conference, defining receivedinformation and a parser operably coupled to the interface and operableto extract information from the received information, defining eventinformation, comprising an event date, an event time, an event title, anevent host, an event participant, and an event location. The applicationserver may be operable to transmit event information. The system mayfurther comprise a communication server operable to receive eventinformation from the application server, defining received eventinformation, and comprising an event database operable to generate anevent ID responsive to the received event information, store an eventrecord comprising the received event information and the event ID, andtransmit the event ID to the application server. The communicationserver may further comprise a contact database comprising a plurality ofcontact records and operable to determine if the plurality of contactrecords comprises either of the event host or the event participant,transmit an indication to the application server for each of the eventhost and the event participant comprised by the plurality of contactrecords, defining found contacts, update contact records associated withthe found contacts with new or changed information comprised by theevent information, generate a contact record comprising information forthe unfound contacts, record the generated contact record to the contactdatabase, and transmit an indication to the application server for eachof the event host and the event participant not comprised by theplurality of contact records defining unfound contacts. Thecommunication server may further comprise a telephone interface operableto establish a conference call responsive to the event date and theevent time, initiate an outbound call to a first telephone numbercomprised by the contact record associated with the event host, initiatean outbound call to a first telephone number comprised by the contactrecord associated with the event participant, and place each of theevent host or the event participant in the conference call upon theevent host or the event participant answering the outbound call.Additionally, the application server may further be operable to transmitan indication about the event record to the found contacts and transmita survey to the unfound contacts.

In some embodiments, the interface of the application server may beoperable to receive a survey response comprising participantinformation, the parser may be operable to extract the participantinformation from the survey response; and transmit the participantinformation to the communication server, and the contact database may beoperable to record the participant information to a contact record ofthe plurality of contact records associated with a person associatedwith the participant information.

In some embodiments, the telephone interface may be operable to delayinitiating the outbound call to the event participant in the conferencecall until the event host is placed into the conference call.

In some embodiments, the found contacts may comprise the eventparticipant, and the application server may be operable to transmit anindication to the event host that the event participant is comprised bythe found contacts.

In some embodiments, the parser may be operable to extract contactinformation for each of the event host and the event participant; andwherein the survey is transmitted to a contact location comprised bycontact information associated with the unfound contacts.

In some embodiments, the received information may comprise a recurringevent. The event database may be operable to generate a plurality ofevent records and event IDs for each event associated with the recurringevent.

In some embodiments, the contact record associated with either of theevent host or the event participant may comprise a second telephonenumber. The telephone interface may be further operable to terminate theoutbound call to the first telephone number comprised by the contactrecord associated with the event host or the event participant andinitiate an outbound call to the second telephone number comprised bythe contact record associated with the event host or the eventparticipant.

In some embodiments, the application server may be further operable toreceive a participation indication from the event participating as towhether the event participant will participate in the event associatedwith the event record and transmit an indication to the event hostresponsive to the participation indication.

In some embodiments, the application server may be further operable toreceive an event change request; wherein the parser is operable toextract event change request information from the event change request,defining extracted change request information; wherein the applicationserver is operable to transmit the extracted change request information;wherein the event database is operable to implement event changescomprised by the extracted change request information to an event recordcomprised by the event database.

In some embodiments, the interface may be operable to receiveinformation related to a telephone conference via at least one of ane-mail calendar event and an application programming interface (API).

Additionally, embodiments of the invention may be directed to a methodof scheduling and initiating a conference call using an applicationserver comprising an interface and a parser and a communication servercomprising an event database, a contact database, and a telephoneinterface, the method comprising receiving information related to atelephone conference, defining received information, parsing thereceiving information to extract information from the receivedinformation, defining event information, comprising an event date, anevent time, an event title, an event host, an event participant, and anevent location, generating an event ID responsive to the received eventinformation, storing an event record comprising the received eventinformation and the event ID on the event database, determining if aplurality of contact records comprised by the contact database compriseseither of the event host or the event participant, transmitting anindication to the application server for each of the event host and theevent participant comprised by the plurality of contact records,defining found contacts, updating contact records associated with thefound contacts with new or changed information comprised by the eventinformation, transmitting an indication to the application server foreach of the event host and the event participant not comprised by theplurality of contact records defining unfound contacts, transmitting anindication about the event record to the found contacts, generating acontact record comprising information for the unfound contacts,recording the generated contact record to the contact database,transmitting a survey to the unfound contacts, establishing a conferencecall responsive to the event date and the event time, initiating anoutbound call to a first telephone number comprised by the contactrecord associated with the event host, initiating an outbound call to afirst telephone number comprised by the contact record associated withthe event participant, and placing each of the event host or the eventparticipant in the conference call upon the event host or the eventparticipant answering the outbound call.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a system for scheduling and initiatingconference calls according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a survey according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of scheduling and initiatinga conference call according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of creating an event tofacilitate scheduling and initiating a conference call according to theembodiment of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method of updating a contactdatabase to facilitate scheduling and initiating a conference callaccording to the embodiment of FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which preferred embodimentsof the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied inmany different forms and should not be construed as limited to theembodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided sothat this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fullyconvey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Those ofordinary skill in the art realize that the following descriptions of theembodiments of the present invention are illustrative and are notintended to be limiting in any way. Other embodiments of the presentinvention will readily suggest themselves to such skilled persons havingthe benefit of this disclosure. Like numbers refer to like elementsthroughout.

Although the following detailed description contains many specifics forthe purposes of illustration, anyone of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate that many variations and alterations to the following detailsare within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the followingembodiments of the invention are set forth without any loss ofgenerality to, and without imposing limitations upon, the invention.

In this detailed description of the present invention, a person skilledin the art should note that directional terms, such as “above,” “below,”“upper,” “lower,” and other like terms are used for the convenience ofthe reader in reference to the drawings. Also, a person skilled in theart should notice this description may contain other terminology toconvey position, orientation, and direction without departing from theprinciples of the present invention.

Furthermore, in this detailed description, a person skilled in the artshould note that quantitative qualifying terms such as “generally,”“substantially,” “mostly,” and other terms are used, in general, to meanthat the referred to object, characteristic, or quality constitutes amajority of the subject of the reference. The meaning of any of theseterms is dependent upon the context within which it is used, and themeaning may be expressly modified.

An embodiment of the invention, as shown and described by the variousfigures and accompanying text, provides a system and method ofscheduling and initiating a conference call.

Referring now specifically to FIG. 1, a conference call scheduling andinitiating system 100 is presented. The system 100 may comprise anapplication server 110 and a communication server 120. The applicationserver 110 and the communication server 120 may each comprise computerhardware necessary to enable the storage and processing of digitalinformation and the communication of digital information across anetwork, including, but not limited to, the Internet. For example, theapplication server 110 and the communication server 120 may eachcomprise a processor, a memory operably coupled to the processor, and anetwork communication device operably coupled to the processor andoperable to communicate across a network. Additionally, the applicationserver 110 and the communication server 120 may be configured tocommunicate with one another across a network, including a local areanetwork (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), such as the Internet. Insome embodiments, the application server 110 and the communicationserver 120 may be virtual servers run on the same computerized device,i.e. using a single processor, a single memory, and a single networkinterface device.

The communication server 120 may comprise an event database 122 and acontact database 124. The event database 122 may comprise a plurality ofevents associated with the system 100. The contact database 124 maycomprise a plurality of contact records associated with individuals thatmay be either event hosts or event participants that facilitatecommunication therewith. Modes of communication that may be associatedwith and comprised by contact records may include, but are not limitedto, telephone, Internet Protocol (IP) phone, video call, instantmessaging, email, and the like.

While each of the event database 122 and the contact database 124 arecomprised by the communication server in the present embodiment, it iscontemplated and included within the scope of the invention that one orboth of the event database 122 and the contact database 124 may becomprised by the application server 110 or another server apart from theapplication server 110 and the communication server 120.

The application server 110 may comprise an email interface 112. Theemail interface 112 may be configured to send and receive emailcommunication from individuals external the system 100. The applicationserver 110 may further comprise a parser 114. The parser 114 may bepositioned in communication with the email interface 112. The emailinterface 112 may be operable to receive an email communication from anindividual external the system 100, defining received information, andprovide either the email communication itself, information comprised bythe email communication, or information about the email communication(metadata), in any combination thereof, to the parser 114. The parser114 may be operable to extract information from information receivedfrom the email interface 112. For example, the email interface 112 mayreceive an email from an event organize 132 and provide that email tothe parser 114.

In some embodiments, the parser 114 may be operable to extract from theinformation received from the email interface 112 information sufficientto initiate scheduling an event, such as a conference call. Suchinformation may include, but is neither limited to nor requires all of,an event date, an event time, an event title, an event host, one or moreevent participants, and an event location, such as a call-in number. Theinformation extracted by the parser 114 may be stored on local storage116.

Additionally, in some embodiments, the application server 110 may beoperable to receive a calendar event from individuals external thesystem 100. The calendar event may be received by the application server110 by any component operable to receive such a digital file, including,but not limited to, a calendar interface 118. The calendar interface 118may be operable to receive and/or query a third party calendar databaseto retrieve a calendar event. For example, and not by way of limitation,the calendar interface 118 may be configured to interface with at leastone of a Google Calendar application programming interface (API), aCaIDAV/iCalendar database, a Microsoft Exchange calendar API, and thelike. Once received by the system 100, that calendar interface 118 mayprovide to the parser 114 the calendar event, information comprised bythe calendar event, or information about the calendar event, in anycombination thereof. Akin to an email, the parser 114 may be operable toextract event information from the calendar event received from thecalendar interface.

The application server 110 may be operable to transmit informationextracted by the parser 114 to the communication server 120. Moreover,the application server 110 may be operable to transmit event informationabout an event extracted by the parser 114 to the event database 122. Insome embodiments, the application server 110 may additionally transmitinformation about the event host and one or more event participants tothe event database 122 along with the event information. The eventdatabase 122 may be operable to receive event information from theapplication server 110, generate an event ID associated with thereceived event information, store the event ID and the received eventinformation as an event record, and transmit the event ID to theapplication server 110. In some embodiments, the event informationextracted by the parser 114 may be for a recurring event. recurringevent. The event database 122 is operable to generate a plurality ofevent records and event IDs for each event associated with the recurringevent.

The application server 110 may further be operable to pair the event IDreceived from the event database 122 with each of an event host and oneor more event participants, storing such information on local storage116. Furthermore, the application server 110 may be operable to transmitthe pairing of the event ID with the event host and one or more eventparticipants to the event database 122.

Additionally, the application server 110 may be operable to transmitinformation regarding at least one of the event host and at least oneevent participant to the contact database 124. The contact database 124may be operable to receive the information from the application serverregarding at least one of the event host and at least one eventparticipant and search all contacts comprised by the contact database124 to determine if there is a matching contact within the database.Such a search may be performed utilizing any contact informationprovided by the application server 110, including, but not limited to,contact name, contact business or organization, telephone number, emailaddress, website Uniform Resource Locator (URL), instant messengeraccount, and the like. If a matching contact is found within the contactdatabase 124, the contact database 124 may transmit an indication to theapplication server 110 that the contact exists within the database. If amatching contact is not found within the contact database 124, thecontact database 124 may transmit an indication to the applicationserver 110 that the contact is not within the contact database 124.

The application server 110 may be operable to transmit a notification toan event participant 134 responsive to an indication that a contactrecord was found in the contact database 124 corresponding to the eventparticipant 134. The notification may inform the event participant 134about the date and time of the conference call and a telephone number toparticipate in the conference call.

Referring now additionally to FIG. 2, a survey 200 according to anembodiment of the invention is presented. The application server 110 maybe operable to send the survey 200 to at least one of an event host andan event participant, defined as a survey recipient, responsive toreceiving an indication from the contact database 124 that the contact(i.e. event host or event participant) is not within the contactdatabase 124. The survey 200 may be transmitted to the survey recipientutilizing the information extracted by the parser 114, including, butnot limited to, via email. For example, the email interface 112 may beoperable to transmit at least one of the survey 200 and a hyperlink to aweb page comprising the survey to one or more participants 134.

The survey 200 may be presented in any medium and is specificallycontemplated as a web form. The survey 200 may be configured to receivesufficient contact information to enable the survey recipient toparticipate in the event, e.g. conference call. In some embodiments, thesurvey 200 may be configured to receive, but is not limited to, a firstname, a last name, a telephone number, and an email address. In someembodiments, the email address may be pre-filled with an email addressassociated with the survey recipient extracted by the parser 114. Thesurvey 200 may comprise fillable fields to receive each of the firstname 212, the last name 214, the telephone number 216, and the emailaddress 218, although as mentioned above, the email address field 218may be pre-filled. Upon entering the information, the survey recipientmay transmit the contact information entered into the survey 200 to bereturned to the application server 110. In the present embodiment, thismay be accomplished by pressing the submit button 220.

The application server 110 may be operable to receive a completed surveyand extract contact information therefrom. The application server 110may further be operable to transmit the extracted contact information tothe contact database 124. The contact database 124 may further beoperable to receive the extracted contact information from theapplication server 110 and either create a new contact record comprisingthe extracted contact information or update an existing contact recordwith the extracted contact information, either supplementing orreplacing any previously existing contact information associated withthat contact. Additionally, upon receiving the completed survey, theapplication server 110 may transmit a notification to the participant134 regarding the event as described hereinabove.

The application server 110 may further be operable to send an invitationto and receive RSPVs from event participants 134. More specifically, theemail interface 112 may be operable to transmit an invitation to theevent participants 134 including details about the event, potentiallyincluding any of the time, date, duration, location, call-in number, andevent password/personal identification number (PIN). The invitation mayfurther be operable to be manipulated by the event participant 134 toindicate whether or not they will participate in the event, such as, forexample, including “Yes” and “No” boxes that, when selected,automatically generates an according response to the invitation. In someembodiments, the invitation may be transmitted as an email. The emailinterface 112 may further be operable to receive an email from the eventparticipants 134 and the event host 136 indicating whether or not theywill attend the conference call. Upon receiving a respond from the eventhost 136 that they will not attend, the application server 110 may beoperable to cancel the event, transmitting a request to the eventdatabase 122 to remove the event therefrom. Additionally, theapplication server 110 may be operable to transmit an indication to theevent database as to whether each event participant 134 will attend theconference call or not. Where the event participant 134 indicates theywill not attend, the application server 110 may be operable to transmita request to the event database to remove that event participant 134from the event. Additionally, the application server 110 may be operableto transmit an indication to the event host 136 as to the content of theattendance indication from the event participant 134, i.e. whether theywill attend the conference call or not.

In some embodiments, the application server 110 may be operable toreceive requests for changes to a scheduled event, process and implementthose requests, and disseminate the resulting changes to the event toevent participants. For example, the email interface 112 may receive anemail from the event organizer 132 requesting a change to the event.Such a requested change may include, but is not limited to, a change inthe event date, event time, event host, or event participant. The emailinterface 112 may be operable to provide either the email containing therequest itself, information comprised by the email containing therequest, or information about the email containing the request(metadata), in any combination thereof, to the parser 114. The parser114 may be operable to extract information from information receivedfrom the email interface 112 to determine the requested change to theevent. The application server 110 may further be operable to transmitextracted requested change information to the event database 122. Inturn, the event database 122 may be operable to receive the extractedrequested change information from the application server 110 andimplement the requested change information to the event record stored onthe event database 122.

The communication server 120 may further be operable to initiate atelephone conference. The communication server 120 may comprise atelephone interface 126 operable to create a conference call thatconference call participants may call into and to initiate a call to theevent participants that, upon establishing communication with the callparticipant (i.e. the call participant answers the call from thetelephone interface 126), places the call participant within theconference call. Devices operable to utilize telephone communication areknown in the art and require no additional discussion.

The communication server 120 may be operable to operate the telephoneinterface 126 responsive to an event comprised by the event database122. More specifically, the communication server 120 may identify ascheduled event that is approaching and operate the telephone interface126 to establish a conference call for the time indicated by thescheduled event. Moreover, the communication server 120 may be operableto facilitate the connection of conference call contacts, for examplethe event host 136 and the event participants 134, through operation ofthe telephone interface 126. For example, the communication server 120may operate or otherwise cause the telephone interface to establish aconference call some period before the scheduled start time for theevent. In some embodiments, the communication server 120 may establishthe conference call five minutes prior to the scheduled time of theevent. However, any amount of time prior to the scheduled start time iscontemplated and included within the scope of the invention, as well asestablishing the conference call immediately at the start time of theevent. The telephone interface 126 may be operable to permit the eventparticipants 134 to call into the conference call after the conferencecall has been initiated by the communication server 120. In someembodiments, the communication server 120 may operate the telephoneinterface 126 to permit only those contacts that are associated with theevent (i.e. are listed as a call host or participant in the event recordstored on the event database 122) to call in. In some embodiments, thetelephone interface 126 may permit any caller to call in to theconference call. In some embodiments, the communication server 120 maybe operable to require entry of at least one of a password or a PIN by acaller before placing the caller into the conference call.

Additionally, the communication server 120 may be operable to operatethe telephone interface 126 to initiate a telephone call to the eventhost 136 and/or the event participants 134. More specifically, either atthe start time of the event or some time therebefore or thereafter, thecommunication server 120 may operate the telephone interface 126 toplace a call to the telephone number associated with either the host 136or the participant 134. When the host 136 or participant 134 answers thecall, the telephone interface 126 may place them in the conference call.In this way, the system 100 may maximize the number of participantsintended to participate in an event, such as a conference call, byestablishing telephonic communication with them at the appropriate time.In some embodiments, the communication server 120 may be operable torequire entry of at least one of a password or a PIN by the host 136 orparticipant 134 prior to placing them in the conference call.

In some embodiments, the communication server 120 may be operable tooperate the telephone interface 126 to call the host 136 prior tocalling the participants 134. For example, the communication server 120may be operable to operate the telephone interface 126 to call the host136 concurrent with or approximately concurrent with creating theconference call. This may reduce the frequency with which participants134 are either placed into the conference call prior to the host 136joining the conference call or placed on hold while waiting for the host136 joining.

Referring now to FIGS. 3-5, various methods of scheduling and initiatinga telephone conference will now be discussed. Referring specifically toFIG. 3, a method 300 according to an embodiment of the invention maystart at block 302 with the receipt of a conference call schedulingrequest. Upon receiving the request, the system may parse the requestfor the date and time of the conference call, the host of the conferencecall, and the participants in the conference call at block 304. Uponparsing the request, the method 300 may create an event at block 306, aswill be described in greater detail hereinbelow.

After block 304, the method 300 may further comprise identifyingindividuals associated with the conference call at block 308, utilizingthe information generated by the parsing performed at block 304. Themethod 300 may further comprise updating the contact database at block310. The method 300 may further comprise notifying participants of thescheduled conference call at block 312 and listening for attendanceindications from participants at block 314. The method 300 may alsocomprise listening for change requests for the conference call, e.g.changes to the date, time, call in number, or participants, at block314. If, at block 314, a change request is received, the method 300 mayreturn to block 304, parsing the change request for changes to the time,date, event host, and event participants, and proceed as describedhereinabove. If, at block 314, no change requests are received, theconference call may be initiated at block 316.

Referring now to FIG. 4, a method 400 of creating an event according toan embodiment of the invention is presented. The method 400 may becalled at block 306 of method 300 of FIG. 3 and begin at block 402. Themethod 400 may continue at block 404 where an event creation request isreceived. Upon receiving an event creation request, an event ID may begenerated at block 406. Additionally, at block 408, the Event ID may beassociated with event information received as part of the requestreceived at block 404. Additionally, the method 400 may comprisetransmitting the Event ID to a recipient, such as the application server110 of FIG. 1, at block 410.

Referring now to FIG. 5, a method 500 of updating a contact databaseaccording to an embodiment of the invention is presented. The method 500may be called at block 310 of method 300 of FIG. 3 and begin at block502. Continuing at block 504, a contact query may be received. Thecontact query may include information about the participant of aconference call, including, but not limited to, an email address.Responsive to the query received at block 504, the method 500 mayfurther comprise searching a contact database at block 506 for a contactrecord comprising information that matches the participant informationreceived at block 504.

If, at block 508, it is determined that a match was found, the method500 may continue at block 510 by retrieving additional participantinformation, including a telephone number, for the contact record thatmatched at block 508 and returning the additional participantinformation to where the request originated at block 520.

If, at block 508, a matching contact record is not found, the method 500may continue at block 512 by sending a survey to the participantassociated with the participant information received at block 504.Survey responses may be received at block 514 and participantinformation contained by the survey responses may be saved into thecontact database at block 516. The participant information contained bythe survey responses may further be returned to where the requestoriginated at block 520.

Some of the illustrative aspects of the present invention may beadvantageous in solving the problems herein described and other problemsnot discussed which are discoverable by a skilled artisan.

While the above description contains much specificity, these should notbe construed as limitations on the scope of any embodiment, but asexemplifications of the presented embodiments thereof. Many otherramifications and variations are possible within the teachings of thevarious embodiments. While the invention has been described withreference to exemplary embodiments, it will be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents maybe substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope ofthe invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt aparticular situation or material to the teachings of the inventionwithout departing from the essential scope thereof. Therefore, it isintended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodimentdisclosed as the best or only mode contemplated for carrying out thisinvention, but that the invention will include all embodiments fallingwithin the scope of the appended claims. Also, in the drawings and thedescription, there have been disclosed exemplary embodiments of theinvention and, although specific terms may have been employed, they areunless otherwise stated used in a generic and descriptive sense only andnot for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention therefore notbeing so limited. Moreover, the use of the terms first, second, etc. donot denote any order or importance, but rather the terms first, second,etc. are used to distinguish one element from another. Furthermore, theuse of the terms a, an, etc. do not denote a limitation of quantity, butrather denote the presence of at least one of the referenced item.

Thus the scope of the invention should be determined by the appendedclaims and their legal equivalents, and not by the examples given.

That which is claimed is:
 1. A system for scheduling and initiating atelephone conference comprising: an application server comprising: aninterface operable to receive information related to a telephoneconference, defining received information; and a parser operably coupledto the interface and operable to extract information from the receivedinformation, defining event information, comprising an event date, anevent time, an event title, an event host, an event participant, and anevent location; the application server being operable to transmit eventinformation; a communication server operable to receive eventinformation from the application server, defining received eventinformation, and comprising: an event database operable to: generate anevent ID responsive to the received event information; store an eventrecord comprising the received event information and the event ID; andtransmit the event ID to the application server; a contact databasecomprising a plurality of contact records and operable to: determine ifthe plurality of contact records comprises either of the event host orthe event participant; transmit an indication to the application serverfor each of the event host and the event participant comprised by theplurality of contact records, defining found contacts; update contactrecords associated with the found contacts with new or changedinformation comprised by the event information; generate a contactrecord comprising information for the unfound contacts; record thegenerated contact record to the contact database; and transmit anindication to the application server for each of the event host and theevent participant not comprised by the plurality of contact recordsdefining unfound contacts; and a telephone interface operable to:establish a conference call responsive to the event date and the eventtime; initiate an outbound call to a first telephone number comprised bythe contact record associated with the event host; initiate an outboundcall to a first telephone number comprised by the contact recordassociated with the event participant; and place each of the event hostor the event participant in the conference call upon the event host orthe event participant answering the outbound call; wherein theapplication server is further operable to: transmit an indication aboutthe event record to the found contacts; and transmit a survey to theunfound contacts.
 2. The system according to claim 1 wherein: theinterface of the application server is operable to receive a surveyresponse comprising participant information; the parser is operable to:extract the participant information from the survey response; andtransmit the participant information to the communication server; andthe contact database is operable to record the participant informationto a contact record of the plurality of contact records associated witha person associated with the participant information.
 3. The systemaccording to claim 1 wherein the telephone interface is operable todelay initiating the outbound call to the event participant in theconference call until the event host is placed into the conference call.4. The system according to claim 1 wherein the found contacts comprisesthe event participant; and wherein the application server is operable totransmit an indication to the event host that the event participant iscomprised by the found contacts.
 5. The system according to claim 1wherein the parser is operable to extract contact information for eachof the event host and the event participant; and wherein the survey istransmitted to a contact location comprised by contact informationassociated with the unfound contacts.
 6. The system according to claim 1wherein the received information comprises a recurring event; andwherein the event database is operable to generate a plurality of eventrecords and event IDs for each event associated with the recurringevent.
 7. The system according to claim 1 wherein the contact recordassociated with either of the event host or the event participantcomprises a second telephone number; and wherein the telephone interfaceis further operable to terminate the outbound call to the firsttelephone number comprised by the contact record associated with theevent host or the event participant and initiate an outbound call to thesecond telephone number comprised by the contact record associated withthe event host or the event participant.
 8. The system according toclaim 1 wherein the application server is further operable to: receive aparticipation indication from the event participating as to whether theevent participant will participate in the event associated with theevent record; and transmit an indication to the event host responsive tothe participation indication.
 9. The system according to claim 1 whereinthe application server is further operable to receive an event changerequest; wherein the parser is operable to extract event change requestinformation from the event change request, defining extracted changerequest information; wherein the application server is operable totransmit the extracted change request information; wherein the eventdatabase is operable to implement event changes comprised by theextracted change request information to an event record comprised by theevent database.
 10. The system according to claim 1 wherein theinterface is operable to receive information related to a telephoneconference via at least one of an e-mail calendar event and anapplication programming interface (API).
 11. A method of scheduling andinitiating a conference call using an application server comprising aninterface and a parser and a communication server comprising an eventdatabase, a contact database, and a telephone interface, the methodcomprising: receiving information related to a telephone conference,defining received information; parsing the receiving information toextract information from the received information, defining eventinformation, comprising an event date, an event time, an event title, anevent host, an event participant, and an event location; generating anevent ID responsive to the received event information; storing an eventrecord comprising the received event information and the event ID on theevent database; determining if a plurality of contact records comprisedby the contact database comprises either of the event host or the eventparticipant; transmitting an indication to the application server foreach of the event host and the event participant comprised by theplurality of contact records, defining found contacts; updating contactrecords associated with the found contacts with new or changedinformation comprised by the event information; transmitting anindication to the application server for each of the event host and theevent participant not comprised by the plurality of contact recordsdefining unfound contacts; transmitting an indication about the eventrecord to the found contacts; generating a contact record comprisinginformation for the unfound contacts; recording the generated contactrecord to the contact database; transmitting a survey to the unfoundcontacts; establishing a conference call responsive to the event dateand the event time; initiating an outbound call to a first telephonenumber comprised by the contact record associated with the event host;initiating an outbound call to a first telephone number comprised by thecontact record associated with the event participant; and placing eachof the event host or the event participant in the conference call uponthe event host or the event participant answering the outbound call. 12.The method of claim 10 further comprising: receiving a survey responsecomprising participant information; extracting the participantinformation from the survey response; and recording the participantinformation to a contact record of the plurality of contact recordsassociated with a person associated with the participant information.13. The method of claim 10 further comprising delaying initiating theoutbound call to the event participant in the conference call until theevent host is placed into the conference call.
 14. The method of claim10 wherein the found contacts comprises the event participant, themethod further comprising transmitting an indication to the event hostthat the event participant is comprised by the found contacts.
 15. Themethod according to claim 10 further comprising extracting contactinformation for each of the event host and the event participant;wherein the survey is transmitted to a contact location comprised bycontact information associated with the unfound contacts.
 16. The methodaccording to claim 10 wherein the received information comprises arecurring event, the method further comprising generating a plurality ofevent records and event IDs for each event associated with the recurringevent.
 17. The method according to claim 10 wherein the contact recordassociated with either of the event host or the event participantcomprises a second telephone number, the method further comprising:terminate the outbound call to the first telephone number comprised bythe contact record associated with the event host or the eventparticipant; and initiating an outbound call to the second telephonenumber comprised by the contact record associated with the event host orthe event participant.
 18. The method according to claim 10 furthercomprising: receiving a participation indication from the eventparticipating as to whether the event participant will participate inthe event associated with the event record; and transmitting anindication to the event host responsive to the participation indication.19. The method according to claim 10 further comprising: receiving anevent change request; extracting event change request information fromthe event change request, defining extracted change request information;and implementing event changes comprised by the extracted change requestinformation to an event record comprised by the event database.
 20. Asystem for scheduling and initiating a telephone conference comprising:an application server comprising: an interface operable to receiveinformation related to a telephone conference, defining receivedinformation; and a parser operably coupled to the interface and operableto extract information from the received information, defining eventinformation, comprising an event date, an event time, an event title, anevent host, an event participant, and an event location; the applicationserver being operable to transmit event information; a communicationserver operable to receive event information from the applicationserver, defining received event information, and comprising: an eventdatabase operable to: generate an event ID responsive to the receivedevent information; store an event record comprising the received eventinformation and the event ID; and transmit the event ID to theapplication server; a contact database comprising a plurality of contactrecords and operable to: determine if the plurality of contact recordscomprises either of the event host or the event participant; transmit anindication to the application server for each of the event host and theevent participant comprised by the plurality of contact records,defining found contacts; update contact records associated with thefound contacts with new or changed information comprised by the eventinformation; generate a contact record comprising information for theunfound contacts; record the generated contact record to the contactdatabase; and transmit an indication to the application server for eachof the event host and the event participant not comprised by theplurality of contact records defining unfound contacts; and a telephoneinterface operable to: establish a conference call responsive to theevent date and the event time; initiate an outbound call to a firsttelephone number comprised by the contact record associated with theevent host; place the event host in the conference call upon the eventhost answering the outbound call thereto; upon placing the event host inthe conference call, initiate an outbound call to a first telephonenumber comprised by the contact record associated with the eventparticipant; and place the event participant in the conference call uponthe event participant answering the outbound call thereto; wherein theapplication server is further operable to: transmit an indication aboutthe event record to the found contacts; and transmit a survey to theunfound contacts; wherein the interface of the application server isoperable to receive a survey response comprising participantinformation; wherein the parser is operable to: extract the participantinformation from the survey response; and transmit the participantinformation to the communication server; and wherein the contactdatabase is operable to record the participant information to a contactrecord of the plurality of contact records associated with a personassociated with the participant information.